Being the Continuing Adventures of a Woman and her Trusty Kayak in New York Harbor, the Hudson River, and Beyond.
(with occasional political rants just to keep things lively!)

Thursday, January 24, 2013

B.C.

Funny how dependent we get on our 'lectric DOO-hickeys sometimes, isn't it? January's always a busy time at work for me. Cold snap actually came in at an OK time for me, I got all sorts of good outdoor time in over the weekend knowing that the post-work walks I'd been indulging in earlier in the month were going to be curtailed, and this week I'm hunkering down in my cubicle and chugging my way through the January reporting queue. I was here pretty late last night and got a bit silly during a facebook break - somebody had given me a fancy tea sachet when I promised her I'd have a certain set of info done for her by the a.m.

I went to my desk, looked at it, found it strangely pretty, and decided to say something about it on Facebook before I got back to the numbers. Usually I wouldn't say something about something as innocuous as a tea sachet, but I'd posted something unusually political earlier in the day and I felt like it was time to put something a little lighter up, so this was perfect. Into facebook, and type type type, and: "..And now for a complete change of tone: A co-worker just gave me a tea sachet that's so pretty I don't know whether to make tea with it, or just hang it from a shelf as a decoration. It is made out of gauzy white fabric and to my eye the form vaguely resembles a 1960's mod dove design." Aaaah, much better. Right, back to the report --

except oops, a tea-loving friend wants a picture.

"No camera" I said.

"Bah! This is why people have smart phones..." he said.

"Have you seen my phone? My phone cracks people up" I said (true, I can ALWAYS get a laugh when people start showing off their phones - it makes and receive phone calls when I remember to charge it and that's mostly what I wanted).

"PS - Tea sachet will be reserved from teacups until proper photographic rendition can be offered up" I said.

And then I turned back to the job at hand and picked up a pen. And that's when it finally hit me -

Wait, wait, what did people do Before Camera?

Viola!

Not the most brilliantest drawing I've ever done, but it did make me laugh that even being the lifelong compulsive doodler that I am, and looking at such an utterly simple object, while sitting at a desk with paper and pens all right within reach, and a scanning copier just down the hall, it still took a good five minutes for me to realize that there might be a way other than a digital camera to convey an image to my friends -- "Hey, I can just DRAW this thing."

Anybody else ever find themselves so sucked in by these nifty devices that they completely forget that there are still old-fashioned ways to do the same thing?

Analoguema!*

*A term that I think was dreamed up by the Peconic Puffin on a rather hysterical comment exchange of takeoffs on the name of this blog!

Oh, I'm not saying everybody should throw their gadgets away. I loooove my camera. And actually one of the reasons I stick with a stupidphone is because I think I would become addicted to a smartphone. It was just funny that being a person who does like to draw, I totally forgot that that was even an option - everything I want to show on my blog or facebook, I almost always take a picture.

As far as other people arting on their blogs, well, Bowsprite's a big favorite of mine of course but I also really enjoy Sam Chapin's occasional doodles (I'm always amazed at how his drawings of Lasers are so nice and simple and always look exactly like Lasers, how does he do that?) and then not too long ago I stumbled across the finest stick-figure art I've ever seen at Something About Rowing. Of course the minute I stumble across her blog she stopped blogging - was it something I said? Anyways, I look at Sam's stuff especially (I think that the stick figures work because there's a sense of humor that's way way quirkier than mine, plus she's such a good storyteller) and think "You know, I'm not that good at drawing but if I practiced some..."

Another funny thing is that the drawing was good enough that my tea-appreciating friend looked at it and responded "Oh, a proper sachet". I've never graduated from Tetley's but I do know there's a very interesting world of tea out there. If I like this one he said I should go to Harney & Sons sometime. Could be fun!

That is the best blog with crappy pictures I ever saw. She's fantastic. In fact there was going to be a Fish on Friday post featuring the Fishguru of Piermont Pier (not kidding!) today but he'll have to wait because of the crappy distraction.

If it snows this weekend maybe I'll read her blog all weekend and then draw a crappy Sunfish!